JESUS WAS NOT A PALESTINIAN | WE NEED TO DISPEL THAT MYTH FOREVER

With Christmas bells chiming and billions preparing to celebrate, Jesus, a Jew, would likely be astonished—and perhaps grappling with an identity crisis—to hear some claiming he hailed from Palestine, a term likely unknown to him in his lifetime. Yet, as the festive season approaches, pro-Palestinian activists have once again taken to social media, proclaiming that Jesus, born in Bethlehem, was a Palestinian. This narrative, while persistent, is a distortion of history, and recent revelations suggest it’s part of a broader effort to rewrite the past for political ends.

In truth, Jesus was a proud, observant Jew, living in his ancestral homeland of Judea and Galilee—from cradle to cross. The claim that he was Palestinian, often pushed to rally Christian support for Palestinian nationalism, frequently veers into deliberate attempts to erase Jewish history, indigeneity, and sovereignty in Israel. At a time when antisemitism is surging globally—reports indicate a 60% rise in antisemitic incidents in the UK alone since 2023—correcting this historical misrepresentation of Christianity’s central figure feels more urgent than ever.

Christian texts are unequivocal: Jesus was born a Jew in the Jewish kingdom of Judea, a region encompassing much of modern-day Israel, where Jews have lived continuously for over 3,000 years. The Gospel of Luke records that Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day, as was customary for Jewish boys (Luke 2:21), and regularly attended synagogue (Luke 4:16). Mark describes him being addressed as a rabbi (Mark 10:51), while Matthew notes his final meal was a Passover seder (Matthew 26:17). Jesus also prayed as a Jew at the Temple in Jerusalem, calling it a “house of prayer” in reference to Isaiah (Matthew 21:13). Tellingly, the New Testament never mentions “Palestine,” as historian Bernard Lewis has pointed out, because no such place existed during Jesus’s life.

The term “Palestine” stems from Philistia, named after the Philistines, an Aegean people who vanished centuries before Jesus’s birth. It was only after the Roman Empire crushed the third Jewish revolt in 135 CE—over a century after Jesus’s death around 27-33 CE—that Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina. This was a deliberate Roman attempt to sever Jewish ties to the land, renaming it after the Jews’ biblical foes to humiliate them. This tactic of erasing Jewish identity, as evidenced by Roman actions, has echoed through history, resurfacing in modern efforts to deny Jewish heritage.

Jesus Christ - detail from Deisis mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul (credit: EDAL ANTON LEFTEROV/CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)/VIA WIKIMEDIA)

Trying to erase Jewish connections to the land

Today, figures like Palestinian-American comedian Amer Zaher, BDS advocate Linda Sarsour, and even Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have portrayed Jesus as a “Palestinian.” Abbas, for instance, has repeatedly claimed Jesus as a Palestinian in Christmas addresses, a narrative critics argue aligns with efforts to undermine Jewish historical ties to the land. A 2024 investigation by the Middle East Media Research Institute revealed that Palestinian Authority textbooks often omit Jewish historical presence in the region. Such distortions aren’t new; the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s National Charter explicitly denies Jewish historical or religious ties to the land, while Hamas’s charter frames Jews as foreign colonizers, a stance that fuelled their October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people.

Equally troubling are actions at sacred sites. The Waqf, custodians of the Temple Mount, have faced accusations of deliberately destroying evidence of Jewish history during unauthorised excavations in 1996. Archaeologists reported in 2023 that artefacts from the First Temple period were discarded, further obscuring Jewish heritage. This pattern of erasure extends to Jesus himself, a Jew who ministered in Judea, a region that includes parts of the modern West Bank. Were he alive today, some anti-Israel activists might paradoxically label him a “foreign settler”—an accusation that would likely bewilder him, given his deep Jewish roots.

The claim that Jesus was Palestinian is not just a historical inaccuracy; it’s a politically charged narrative rooted in centuries-old efforts to erase Jewish identity. As a victim of antisemitic abuse—mocked by Roman soldiers “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said, before slapping him (John 19:03)—Jesus might find such rebranding not only confusing but insulting. To preserve historical truth and counter antisemitic narratives, it’s vital to reaffirm Jesus’s Jewish identity and indigeneity, dispelling the myth of his “Palestinian” identity once and for all. In a world where history is too often bent to serve political ends, the truth about Jesus remains a powerful antidote to misinformation.